Making the World a Better Place – One Review at a Time

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True Blood: The Complete Season 1Unrated but contains gory violence, strong sexual content, nudity, drug usage and languageAvailable on DVD and Blu-rayHBO had a huge feat in replacing it’s most recent hit dramas The Sopranos, Rome, and Deadwood. With Showtime nipping at its heals with Dexter and The Tudors – HBO needed a hit. And this year they got it with this inventive vampire series by Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball. In world of True Blood, the Japanese have invented a synthetic blood, making it possible for vampires to not have to feed off of humans any longer, thus allowing them to come out of the coffin. When a virginal waitress (Anna Paquin) from rural Louisiana falls in love with a vampire (Stephen Moyer), she must decide whether to live a normal, boring life, or set off on an exciting journey full of danger. Once again, HBO has hit it out of the park. More like a twelve-hour movie than a TV show, True Blood proves that it can still keep the creativity coming and keep its audience fully engaged. While I would normally suggest getting a set like this on blu-ray, I was disapointed that the special features easily found on the menu of the DVD could only be located within the enhance viewing mode of the actual episodes on blu-ray. While this mode can be entertaining, I think it’s annoying to not have the ability to watch all of the features at the touch of a button. A-

Paul Blart: Mall CopRated PG for some violence, mild crude and suggestive humor, and languageAvailable on DVD and Blu-rayKevin James is Paul Blart, an overweight mall security guard that takes his job very seriously. When he finds himself in the way of a dangerous band of thugs determined to steal millions of dollars from his mall, he sets out to stop them. Let me start by saying that I really like Kevin James. I think he is funny, smart, and talented. I also think he is far above the brainless level of this film. While there are a few occasional laughs, this movie is an unintelligent mess full of moronic humor and bad jokes. To make matters worse, the x-games bad guys were insulting to watch as they stuntworked their way to try to stop the painfully inept Blart. I don’t know what’s more painful – that the film was made or that the film made $150 million at the U.S. box office. D